Marxist–Leninist Party, USA

The Marxist–Leninist Party, USA (MLP) was a Party arising out of a series of communist anti-revisionist groups that began in 1967 lasted until 1993 when it dissolved. It was founded as the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist–Leninist) in the 1960s as a Maoist organization allied with the Canadian Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist), CPC (M-L). During its history, it became a Hoxhaist group, before turning away from backing Albania, then rejecting Maoism and subsequently Stalinism as being revisionist. After its dissolution, the majority of its members who remained active formed the Communist Voice Organization. Its main publication was the paper Workers Advocate.

For other uses, see Marxist–Leninist Party.
Marxist-Leninist Party, USA
AbbreviationMLP
Founded1967
Dissolved1993
Succeeded byCommunist Voice Organization (unofficially)
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism-Leninism
Maoism (until 1978)
Hoxhaism

History

The group's origins lie in a small, predominantly African American, group founded in early 1967 called Cleveland Draft Resistance Union.[1][2][3] In 1968 they reorganized as the Workers Action Committee[1][4] and broadened their focus from anti-war activities to community organizing, strike support, and the study of Marxism. They embraced Maoism and developed a close relationship with the Canadian Communist Movement (Marxist-Leninist) led by Hardial Bains.[1][4] In May 1969 the WAC attended a Marxist–Leninist conference in Regina, Canada and established the American Communist Workers' Movement (Marxist-Leninist).[1][5][4] It has "just 100 members."[2]

The ACWM emulated some of the strategy expounded by Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist) leader Hardial Bains, including attempting to launch a daily newspaper. This experiment - the only Maoist daily ever published in the United States - was the People's America Daily News which lasted for 77 issues.[4]

In about 1973 the group was renamed the Central Organization of US Marxist–Leninists .[1][6] and militantly opposed the police and fascism, as well as socialists and communists they considered "revisionist". The group continued to move with the CPC (M-L) from Maoism to Hoxhaism [7] until in 1980 they adopted the name Marxist–Leninist Party USA and split with the Canadian group the following year, with those remaining loyal to the CPC (M-L) becoming the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization.

The break with the CPC (M-L) led to the MLP beginning a reassessment of its politics, partially in an attempt to draw other antirevisionists towards it, as many groups claiming anti-revisionism were moving to the right-wing. By the late 1980s the MLP had come to the conclusion that anti-revisionism meant that they had to reject the traditional support of the communist movement's positions from the time of the 1935 Congress of the Comintern onwards. This decision, however, led to an ideological impasse in the MLP, and at its fifth Congress in November 1993 it voted to dissolve itself.[8] A number of activists in the MLP have continued work as the Communist Voice Organization.

See also

References
  1. Alexander, Robert Jackson (2001). Maoism in the Developed World. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 37–38. ISBN 9780275961480.
  2. Elbaum, Max (2018). Revolution in the Air: Sixties Radicals Turn to Lenin, Mao and Che (PDF). Verso Books. pp. 236–237, 341. ISBN 9781786634597.
  3. "Vietnam War". The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History. 22 May 2018.
  4. "American Communist Workers' Movement (Marxist-Leninist)". The Encyclopedia of anti-Revisionism On-line.
  5. Klehr, Harvey (1988). Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today. Transaction Publishers. pp. 125–126. ISBN 9781412823432.
  6. Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists Formed!, Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line, https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-2/cousml-2.htm
  7. The New Communist Movement: Crises, Splits and More New Parties, 1977-1980, Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line, http://www.marxistsfr.org/history/erol/ncm-5/index.htm
  8. McLemee, Scott (21 March 1994). "Nothing To Be Done". In These Times. pp. 39–40.(Alternative version:)
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